It seems dishonest to use some disembodied third person and not admit that I am writing this. Yes, me, Sumner James McGraw Phillips. Writing about my own music seems strange when you could just listen to it, but words felt necessary, so here goes. Some facts: 1) When I release solo music, I use my first two names to honor my great grandfather Sumner Barlow, who was a poet and musician. 2) Ephemera is my second solo full length record. 3) The 11 songs that make up this record were written on a laptop from roughly May 2013 until January 2015. These songs lived with me on the road with Bombadil and on vacation and at home and at the gym and on walks and as I went to sleep.They were my attempt to put perspective on a confusing few years. They helped me process my failures (and successes), and study the tricky internal fictions that memory creates. I chipped away at them slowly but surely, with a simple organizing framework in mind: the desire to illustrate memory with sound (although I wanted to write pop songs too). Most of all, I just wanted to make things because it made me feel better about the world. Many dear friends helped along the way, and I am grateful for them. I hope you enjoy it.